As we continue the journey in Lent, Jesus opens the eyes of the man born blind!

Here is a provocative moment in John’s account. Jesus makes clay with his saliva. The account reads:

… [Jesus] spat on the ground
and made clay with the saliva,
and smeared the clay on his eyes,

Two ideas come to me in this passage.

First, Pope Francis remarks how Jesus uses his saliva in another context. In Mark’s account, Jesus uses saliva to cure the deaf man. The pope suggests Jesus does this as “a mother would do.” This is so people would not think of him as removed from their lives (Delexit nos 36). Whenever a child has a little scab, a mother tenderly uses her saliva as a medicine for the child. The child feels the mother’s love and medicinal care.

Second, this is an image of the Genesis account where God takes clay to form man out of the earth. The Son of Man is putting on full view his capacity to create and restore.

Jesus instructs the blind man to wash in the Pool of Siloam. This pool was a freshwater reservoir in Jerusalem.

The Pool of Siloam is believed to be fed by the fresh waters from the Gihon Spring. The spring is located in the Kidron Valley. The Gihon Spring is significant. It was one of the water sources in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:13). King Solomon washed his anointing oil in the Gihon Spring after his coronation (1 King 1:33).

Jesus invited the blind man to wash his eyes in the fresh waters that flowed from Eden’s Garden. He was given his sight! This invitation was a way of saying, “Be made whole. Be who you were before the fall.” Furthermore, washing in the same pool where Solomon washed the anointed oil is symbolic. It is as if Jesus tells the blind man, “Recognize that I have made you for myself. I have crowned you prince for my kingdom.”

The blind man teaches us that the journey to faith has many layers. The blind man recognizes Jesus in stages as he gave witness to this miracle. He recognized Jesus as a man. In later deliberations with the Pharisees, he recognized Jesus as a prophet.

He only came to know Jesus as Lord when he stood before Him. This happened after he engaged in intimate conversation. Here’s the moment captured in cinema:

Friends, we are on the way to meet Christ Crucified and Risen at Easter. We are not journeying alone. We journey with the Elect preparing for Easter Sacraments. We join them with our prayers. We pray that the same Jesus who gave sight to the man born blind will open our eyes of faith. We too will profess him as Lord. He has invited us to bathe in the fresh waters, not of Siloam, but from his crucified side.